New business booming in Hadley, town officials report

File photo by Don Treeger / The RepublicanWall panels for the new Hadley Home Depot on Rte. 9 are lifted into place.

By DIANE LEDERMAN
dlederman@repub.com

HADLEY - Building Inspector Timothy L. Neyhart nodded at a nearby pile of rolled-up building plans, some of which he had not had time to review.

While some communities have seen a slowdown in growth, Hadley is still seeing development.

"It's crazy; we can't keep up with it," Neyhart said today.

Despite years of delays, he said, a Home Depot hardware outlet opposite Mountain Farms Mall is scheduled to open on Dec. 11. The lot is paved, and the building is up.

The project has been under way since the summer of 2000, when a Town Meeting approved rezoning 30 acres of the 51-acre parcel from agricultural-residential to business.

A Taco Bell restaurant is also planned on the site, said Neyhart.

The developer for a planned Lowe's home improvement store, at a site less than a mile from Home Depot, is proceeding with plans. Neyhart said the company is expected to apply for a building permit anytime.

Planning Board member William E. Dwyer Jr. said the company will probably commence work at the site in the fall, with the building going up next spring. That project first went to a Town Meeting for a zone change in 2003.

It was not approved until a fourth town vote the following year.

The Springfield-based Pride Stations & Stores, meanwhile, has purchased the Aqua Vita Restaurant and hotel land at 25 and 29 Russell St., for $3 million as well as the house next to it at 15 Russell St. for $275,000. Robert L. Bolduc, the president of Pride Stations & Stores, said he is not certain what he will do with the property.

Neyhart said two restaurants are coming to Hampshire Mall, and are expected to open soon.

Noting the housing market slump, however, Dwyer said no new large-scale subdivisions have been proposed to his board since last January.

"We are still seeing projects," he said, "but no large projects are being launched."

So, he added, the slowdown is leaving the board enough time to work with its consultant to put some new subdivision regulations in place and "generally to do some planning."